CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday unveiled a new super-charged app, Facebook Home, that takes over the home screens of phones powered by Google’s Android operating system.

At an event yesterday, Zuckerberg called it “the best version of Facebook there is.”

The software makes Facebook’s news feed the centerpiece of the home screen, while the social network’s suite of apps, including Messenger and Instagram, are easily accessible. The new interface isn’t a replacement for Android so much as a takeover.

“Facebook has hijacked Android,” said analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research. “There was a new category created today, and it’s called social phones.”

“Ninety-five percent of the weight-lifting was done by Android,” he added. “This shows the mental aptitude and strategic thinking that Facebook has.”

Industry observers said the new interface, which is expected to entice users to spend more time on Facebook, represents a big mobile leap forward for social networking.

“Facebook’s ability to move closer to the surface of the mobile experience is a win,” said analyst Ken Sena with Evercore Partners.

Facebook Home will be available April 12 through Android’s Play app store, which puts it at the fingertips of tens of millions of devices in the US alone. Facebook also co-designed the HTC First phone, which will come with Home pre-installed. The phone will sell for $100 through AT&T starting April 12.

The question is how many of its 1 billion global users — 700 million on mobile — want the social network to control their phones.

“It depends how many people want to see the world through that blue lens,” said Charles Golvin, a researcher with Forrester.

Android will run on 65 million devices in the US by year’s end, according to eMarketer, while Apple’s iPhone will account for about 54 million.

Facebook Home wouldn’t have been possible on the iPhone because that is a closed system — unlike Android, which is open and free for developers to customize.

“The Android platform has spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices,” a Google rep said. “This latest device demonstrates the openness and flexibility that has made Android so popular.”

Still, some think that Facebook Home shows Android is too open.

“Google is going to lose mobile monetization if Facebook Home is the first interaction that a user ever makes,” Chowdhry said.

Facebook and Google are going after the same mobile advertising dollars that will almost quadruple to a $27 billion market by 2017, according to eMarketer.